Home > Maddy Prior

Maddy was born on 14th August 1947 in Blackpool. While in her teens she moved to St Albans. She met up with Tim Hart at a folk festival in Keele. Together they recorded two albums before becoming founding members of Steeleye Span in 1970. They were the backbone of the group until the early 1980s when ill-health forced Tim into semi-retirement. Maddy married bassist Rick Kemp and produced a daughter, Rose Kemp, who launched her own recording career in 2003. Although best known as the powerful soprano in Steeleye Span, Maddy has recorded session work, albums of her own songs and eclectic styles from medieval, through folk-rock, prog-rock and traditional songs. She left Steeleye Span in the early 1990s and returned in 1999.

1 Discography

1.1 with Steeleye Span

Maddy Prior was on all the Steeleye Span albums from Hark! The Village Wait (1970) to Tempted and Tried (1989). Then returned for The Journey (1999) and subsequent albums.

1.2 Solo Albums

• Woman in the Wings (1978)
• Changing Winds (1978)
• Happy Families (1981)
• Hooked on Winning (1982)
• Memento (best of) (1995)
• Ravenchild (1999)
• Ballads and Candles (2000)
• Arthur the King (2001)
• Bib and Tuck (2002)
• Lionheart (2003)

1.3 Tim Hart and Maddy Prior

• Folk Songs of Olde England vol 1 (1968)
• Folk Songs of Olde England vol 2 (1968)

1.4 Maddy Prior and Tim Hart

• Summer Solstice (1971)

1.5 Maddy Prior and June Tabor

• Silly Sisters (1976)
• No More To The Dance (1988)

1.6 Maddy Prior, John Kirkpatrick and Sydney Carter

• Lovely in the Dance (1981)

1.7 Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band

• Sing Lustily With Good Courage (1986)
• A Tapestry of Carols (1987)
• Carols and Capers (1991)
• Year (1993)
• Hang Up Sorrow and Care (1995)
• Carols at Christmas (1996)
• Flesh and Blood (1997)
• Gold Frankincense and Myrrh (2001)

1.8 As a session singer

She appeared on these albums:

• Shirley Collins: No Roses (1971)
• Mike Oldfield: Incantations (1978)
• Frankie Armstrong : Till The Grass O'Ergrow The Corn (1996)
• Tim Hart and Friends: The Drunken Sailor (1983)
• Tim Hart and Friends: Favourite Nursery Rhymes (1983)